This is one of those areas where California just plain outshines every other state by a huge margin -- the CC, CSU, and UC systems are generally accessible (alt

This is one of those areas where California just plain outshines every other state by a huge margin -- the CC, CSU, and UC systems are generally accessible (although UCs have gotten much more expensive, especially recently -- but they're also among the top schools in the world in specific fields). For instance, I got in to Cal Poly, which ranks very high on many lists for Engineering, and it cost me (a California citizen) $1400 a quarter. I also attended the local CC, and prices there were even cheaper, something like $18 a credit. The books were more expensive than the class. It was a pretty common thing among my (upper middle class) high school classmates for people to attend a CC for 2 years, then transfer to a prestigious UC. They'd have to pay that UC-level fee for two years, but the first 2 years of college were affordable enough for people to put themselves through school.